Verdi Can Unite America as Well as Italy
On April 11 the Choral Society and Orchestra of Grace Church in Manhattan performed Guiseppe Verdi’s “Requiem” at Carnegie Hall. To our surprise, when we ordered the tickets (which were only $20 each for balcony seats, and $65 for orchestra seats) the hall was nearly sold out a month before the concert. Carnegie hall seats 3600 people. Although the concert took place on a cold rainy night, lines extended down the block of ticket holders waiting to enter, and indeed when we finally got to our seats, it turned out to be true: not one empty seat to be seen.
Not only that, but the people seated around us all looked like young professionals or college students, dressed for a day at the office, not super casual, and not like your typical Carnegie Hall concert goers wanting to be seen in their Sunday best.
We also noticed that although the Requiem is about 90 minutes long, there were no chairs on the choral risers, which appeared to be set up for 150—200 singers. When the chorus began processing in, they were not in order by sections, but men and women were interspersed, and once they reached their seats, it remained that way. As soon as the first row of singers began making their way to the top row of risers on stage, a clamor began in the audience, like a college graduation, you could hear loud whispers, “There’s Frank!” and then hooting and waving from the balcony to try and get “Frank’s” attention by his fan club. As more choristers made their way to their places, different groups in the audience would jump up, yell or whistle and begin waving wildly. Someone in the middle of the chorus must have sold the most tickets, or been the equivalent of the class clown, because when whoever-it-was walked onstage, half the balcony stood up hooting and hollering.
When the performance began, the audience wasn’t totally silent—clearly most of them weren’t accustomed to attending a classical concert, and it took them a bit to realize that the orchestra was actually playing. Then they settled down and concentrated until the end of each section, at which point they all applauded. A small group actually whistled when the soprano had a particularly long high note.
The audience had come to support their friends in the chorus! And they were both proud and impressed with the performance, which was good. While there appeared to be some regular 70 year old concert-goers in the orchestra section (whose hands remained folded in their laps until the end), otherwise, the median age in the hall might have been 27.
Who would have expected to see 3000 young adults wildly applauding their office co-workers or college classmates for singing in the Verdi Requiem in the middle of this seeming Dark Age?
The performance was adversely affected by the high tuning, which wasn’t super high, but enough to dull the high notes of the otherwise very musical and sweet-voiced tenor, and also to rob the mezzo and bass-baritone of some of the richness of their voices. The soloists were all very good, but it’s a large orchestra with lots of brass and woodwinds and the Verdi tuning would have helped. The time is ripe for a bold return to the fight for the Verdi tuning, and it looks like the younger people are ready for it.
